miguel87

I would rey to get a range of focal lengths rather than 1 great eyepiece. I have a choice of 5 eyepieces when I observe and most people would call this a fairly small range (I have a barlow too).

I would look at having a range of magnifications between about 25x and 300x.

You can get alot with £200, all my eyepieces including my barlow would cost £300 new!

Hi Rob,

I love how the spring/summer constellations remind me of warm, late evening. There are some nice globular around too.

I think it helps to have a long term goal of some kind. Although I am happy enough just browsing and reading about objects, who discovered them, how far away they are etc etc.

I recently started sketching and have decided to try and sketch all 110 Messier objects. This have been really fun and has me itching to get outside whenever possible! It also provides direction for my observing targets (though I frequently go off piste!).

Having said all that, dont try to force a hobby that you just arent interested in.

Slightly off topic but not totally. I get frustrated by goto. I would not have a goto mount if it was offered to me for free. It kinds defeats half the fun for me; learning the night sky, star hopping, discovering objects on route to your final destination, getting lost! The challenge and the reward. The thrill is in the chase.

I feel like manual guiding is like playing a game of football, you are right there, involved, making decisions, trying to get somewhere and learning along the way. Goto is like sitting in the stands and watching the game. Sure you get to see the same stuff but you just sit there, it all gets shown to you while you just...spectate.

The analogy is not mine but from a book review I read a long time ago.

1 minute ago, ShrewView said:

Lovely stuff. 

I like your M3. I always find them a bit intimidating to try and draw....too many stars!

Yeah, I think on reflection I have been a bit harsh with the size, probably should have drawn it a little bigger but I was too concerned with getting the density right I didnt notice!

Thanks

Great report thanks.

I have never viewed a comet and would be interest to have a go.

Are there any good websites or similar with current viewable comets listed with an idea of their size/brightness?

Glad I'm not the only one who thought it was a little murky last night.

Hi folks,

Another decent night and my messier sketch catalogue has hit double figures.

Waited for proper dark whilst watching Venus with the naked eye, so stunning against the twilight. Caught the 9pm starlink train but it was much fainter than sunday night as there was so much light in the sky.

At about 9.45 I uncapped the tube and thought I would start with something easy for the eyes, M67, an open cluster in cancer. However, the constellation is relatively dim and I struggled to star hope from alpha cancer. The third attempt was successful and the view very pleasant with my 20mm Vixen NPL.

By 10.20 it was pretty well dark and next on my list was the globular M3 in canes venatici. I star hopped from coma berenices and located M3 quite easily with the 2inch SW panaview. After testing out some higher magnification I settled on my new (first light) 12mm starguider to sketch as it appeared to give the best resolved view. I really enjoyed M3.

After spending an hour or so reclined in my deck chair watching the lyrids (2 excellent meteors, 1 of which broke into to obvious pieces almost overhead) I decided to move to my final target for the evening as the sky was sufficiently dark with perhaps a hint of high cloud.

M100 in coma berenices is one of those objects that is quite easy to notice despite being incredibly dim. My stargazing handbook lists it as a binocular object which is hard to believe whilst studying the image in my 8 inch newt. It is definitely there, and probably quite big but the light is spread really thin. The 20mm NPL gave the best view for sketching.

Tried my luck for another 30 minutes with lyrids as it was now past midnight. Unfortunately I saw nothing significant.

Really enjoyed another relaxing sessions a 3 more messier's in the book 😁

As part of my quest to sketch all 110 messier objects, I have been trying to plan ahead especially for some that might pass me by.

On that theme, what are my odds of catching M83 tonight from south wales or is there a better time of year?

Thanks,

Mike

Welcome from the gower! Amazing skies we are having 😁

18 minutes ago, John said:

The project has been running since 2015 with the permissions being considered in 2017 and approved towards the end of that year. Worldwide astronomy organisations did raise concerns at the time but the decision was still to go ahead. I believe the project gathered additional impetus when the US military took an interest in it.

By all means sign the petitions etc but in all honesty I don't see any chance whatsoever in stopping this programme now.

I agree with this entirely.

I also thing it is likely that the youtube videos are not based on any actual data so could be very inaccurate.

If they are low earth orbit then like others have said they will have virtually no impact in proper astronomical dark.

Dont get me wrong, I really dont like them and if I thought I could do anything to stop them, I would.

I really hope their impact is minimal

53 minutes ago, rwilkey said:

Hi all, I do not specifically collect sets but I have a good few eyepieces in common, such as the Naglers, ExSc and the BST StarGuiders, but here is some in my odds case:

Your foam cutting skills are exquisite!

35 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

Remove the screws from the plate on the right hand side. The raised collar under the screws head is the threaded part. The screws need to go through the hole on the left hand plate (in your picture) and the end of the screws should just come out through the raised collar on the right hand plate which is threaded.

This is the answer. In your picture, the piece of plastic with the screws already through should be the only threaded part.

1 hour ago, Ouroboros said:

When these satellites are all launched will last night's dreadful  cavalcade of lights be visible all night, every night and in all parts of the sky? 

No

First time I have ever seen them too. Not sure what to think. I dont think they are going to ruin astronomy, there are far more planes passing over and that doesnt ruin astronomy. I guess imagers might dislike them more. I quite enjoyed watching them tonight but I definitely do not want a busy night sky.

4 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Quite the contrary.  I've gotten several more since these photos were taken and at least one more is on the way.  You should see my still and video camera and lens collection stored away in 10 or 15 Tamrac cases and assorted boxes.  When I die, my wife and kids won't know what to make of any of it.

I know what I would make of it! 🤑🤑🤑

Wow! In the nicest possible way, that is a ridiculous amount of eyepieces!

Must give you a great basis for comparison tho, I will be coming to you for any future advice 😁

My OCD would be going crazy, I cant have more than 5 or 6. And if I had more than one of the same focal length I would have to chose the best one and sell the rest.

Great varied collection 👏

My black diamond spot lite 160  arrived today. Feels like a really nice build quality, comfortable to wear and very reasonably priced 👍

Obviously it hasn't had a proper test (wednesday hopefully) but I am pretty sure I will have to dim the red LED somehow as it seems pretty bright even at it's dimmest setting and I'm sitting here in broad daylight saying that. Maybe a layer of nail varnish or some other method. 

I will update after a proper dark test.

Edit: just found out that parcel tape seems to do a really nice job 👍

Good advice.

You can however slap a solar filter on any telescope, not just refractors.

And you can get a lot more aperture than 80mm for 160 quid.

Definitely could be considered a simpler scope to use tho. I agree with you there. And great portability.

29 minutes ago, John said:

Nothing wrong with any of those

Thankyou. I dont have a fortune to spend but I thought I should spend the most on the shorter focal lengths.

My decision now is whether to buy a 1.25 or 2inch UHC filter?

I'm not gonna rush that one tho. I've never even looked through a filter yet. Just gonna spend more time sketching nebula and see which eyepiece I end up using the most.

I know I'm late to the party but I just took a self indulgent picture after completing my collection 😁

Not totally mismatched but close enough I think. It is funny how we get attached to eyepieces that we know are not that great (I could never get rid of my Vixen NPL).

I just found out that the Hubble space telescope is f24 😯

My 8 inch would need to be 192 inches long, that's about 16 feet long?!

My 6mm eyepiece would give a nice 812x magnification 😁

Just now, John said:

From my experience, eyepieces optics start to be challenged (ie: show aberrations if they have them) from around F/7 and faster.

From F/5 things can get really messy in the outer parts of the field of view if the eyepiece is not well corrected.

Coming from a more experienced observer this sounds accurate.

I have an f5 scope and with my widest eyepiece of 70°, there is fairly significant stretching of stars right at the edge of the view. I would guess this would worsen with 90 or 100 degree eyepieces. An f8 scope would cope much better if you want crisp, wide angle views. Although many amateur astronomers are more than happy with f5 or faster scopes.

A generally true simplification is just to say that F number makes no difference to visual observing.

It is much more important to photography.

The only thing I would consider is that lower numbers like F4 or F3 are less forgiving of imperfections in optical systems. 

8 minutes ago, Sprint said:

ahh ok so with a 70deg eyepiece as a constant an F6 scope will show the same area as an F10 but the latter will remain sharper to the edge of the area??

Sort of, the image will be 70 degrees across, to your eyes, in both scopes.

But the area of sky seen could vary, depends on the focal length of the telescopes, not the F number (speed).

So if I asked "what area of sky will I see with a 70° eyepiece in an F6 scope?" It is impossible to answer without knowing the focal length of the scope.

I miss Orion but he does remind me of being freezing cold! So that's something. Like Scorpio reminds me of warm summer nights.

😁

I vote 130p eq2. That was my first telescope.

Or perhaps you mean how do you make the actual physical size of the image larger to look at (i.e. the eye has to roam farther to see the whole scene).

In that case you are talking about AFOV (actual field of view). Again this depends on the eyepiece far more than the telescope. Angles of more than 60 or 70 degrees can get pretty expensive.

You could argue that faster (f5 and below) scopes cant display wide fields with as much accuracy (sharpness of image around the edges is worse) they can still show a super wide field of view.

Its all about the eyepiece.

A 70° field of view eyepiece will give you 70° regardless of the telescope it is in.